Trump just fired James Comey

[crazyfingers]

Comey probably should have been fired over his Clinton/email announcement just before the election.

But there is no doubt in my mind that that's not why Trump fired him. Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug. The huge thing about Trump and his minions so obviously lie so often that nothing that they say is credible.

Regarding Russia, I hope that they are closely looking into how first Trump invited the Russians to hack Clinton's email. And they did.

 

[Ford]

Comey probably should have been fired over his Clinton/email announcement just before the election.

But there is no doubt in my mind that that's not why Trump fired him. Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug.

I didn't really understand the timing of this whole thing until this morning...when I heard that Trump was having a closed-door meeting with senior Russian officials.

Trump did as he was told.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Comey will very likely be testifying again. While he still can't disclose classified info, he might be phrasing his responses a bit differently.

And the first question would be, "Mr. Comey, did you at any time inform the President that he was not under investigation?".

 

[Artemus]

Comey will very likely be testifying again. While he still can't disclose classified info, he might be phrasing his responses a bit differently.

And the first question would be, "Mr. Comey, did you at any time inform the President that he was not under investigation?".

He's been asked to speak to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session next week. I believe that classified information can be discussed there. Link.

 

[Elixir]

Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug.

Yeh - I'm just waiting for him to take that next step towards the cliff. And he's just stupid/brazen enough to do exactly that.

 

[ZiprHead]

Next FBI director will be Rudy Giuliani. Bet on it.

 

[blastula]

What motive? He made the worse choice possible. And he opened himself and the FBI to the worst charge of influencing the outcome of an election. The fact he was fired over this by Trump is a karmic irony.

As far as I am concerned, the only sympathy he merits is the public embarrassment from this administration's ham-handed firing.

Saying "And he deliberately chose the worst possible option" is attributing motive. And we have the luxury of hindsight in saying it was the worst possible option. Had the congressional republicans behaved like adults we wouldn't even be having a conversation. Should he have realized that he was dealing with a bunch of two year olds? Maybe, but again we have the luxury of hindsight in making that judgment. Too much hate is directed at him personally when there are multitudes of reasons why this debacle actually happened.

In my opinion (TM).

He's testified he knew the letter would be made public. IMO, his failure is he put his own personal appearance of objectivity above the role of his office. There are good reasons for their policy against independently making public comments of their charging recommendation and especially doing anything public near an election. But it seems like he likes to be thought of as the most honest one in the room. Other possible factors are he was less worried about making Democrats mad than Republicans, and that he thought Clinton would win anyway.

We'll never know if his actions affected the outcome. There was more likely no single factor that decided the outcome. Besides blaming Comey for any part he played, I blame Obama for appointing him in the first place. He loved too much to appoint Republicans to military and law enforcement positions, perpetuating the idea that Republicans are better at those roles. I think he liked to do that, like Comey, for his own self-aggrandizement for appearing bipartisan.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

McCabe will not be interim FBI Director.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Horatio Parker]

Really? I think he figured Republican vengeance was more certain, so he stepped up for them.

Comey stood up against Republican vengeance in the past. Bush berated him as "not a team player" when he wouldn't sign on to warrantless wiretapping only threats of mass resignations prevented the vengeance then. (See ThinkProgress from 2007.) I find it highly unlikely that he would suddenly step up for the republicans last October for fear of vengeance while in a historically much more secure job. (Only one FBI director ever fired.)

People want a scapegoat for Clinton losing. I'm going to keep blaming it on the general stupidity of just enough Americans.

Sorry, but there's no solid-citizen-stand-up-guy reason for Comey to do what he did during the election. Whether you believe it had anything to with Trump's win is secondary.

Purely political move. Maybe fear of Republican vengeance was not his motive(I doubt that), but usurping the Justice dept was surely political.

 

[bleubird]

Spicer is taking break,Right!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Spicer is taking break,Right!

I heard he is getting into landscaping.

 

[bleubird]

He is Navy reserve.How convenient.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I find it interesting that Klansman Sessions is supposed to be recused from both Hillary Clinton and Trump, yet there's his letter.

 

[barbos]

I find it interesting that Klansman Sessions is supposed to be recused from both Hillary Clinton and Trump, yet there's his letter.

Good catch.

 

[Will Wiley]

Comey probably should have been fired over his Clinton/email announcement just before the election.

But there is no doubt in my mind that that's not why Trump fired him. Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug. The huge thing about Trump and his minions so obviously lie so often that nothing that they say is credible.

Regarding Russia, I hope that they are closely looking into how first Trump invited the Russians to hack Clinton's email. And they did.

Yeah true. The Russians never do anything unless Trump asks them to

 

[Will Wiley]

Comey probably should have been fired over his Clinton/email announcement just before the election.

But there is no doubt in my mind that that's not why Trump fired him. Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug.

I didn't really understand the timing of this whole thing until this morning...when I heard that Trump was having a closed-door meeting with senior Russian officials.

Trump did as he was told.

Oh those big bad Russians. They are just so bold aren't they Ford. They did it right under your nose Ford.

 

[iolo]

The Clown is clearly going the way of Nixon, but much faster and much more stupidly. The real question is whether it will take another Civil War to get rid of the malign regime of his malignant supporters.

They are paper tigers, the lot of them.

They will get red in the face and sucker punch women, but actually doing something risky is beyond their pampered ignorant lives.

Hope you are right. They can, though, do risky things, I suppose, as a result of stupidity rather than courage.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Comey probably should have been fired over his Clinton/email announcement just before the election.

But there is no doubt in my mind that that's not why Trump fired him. Trump wants to replace Comey with someone who will brush the whole Russia thing under the rug. The huge thing about Trump and his minions so obviously lie so often that nothing that they say is credible.

Regarding Russia, I hope that they are closely looking into how first Trump invited the Russians to hack Clinton's email. And they did.

Yeah true. The Russians never do anything unless Trump asks them to

I think that you have that backwards kemosabe!

 

[laughing dog]

Saying "And he deliberately chose the worst possible option" is attributing motive.

No, it is not. He did not flip a coin. He looked at his options and he made a choice. And it was clearly the worst choice even at the time. There was nothing preventing him from choosing to follow DOJ guidelines, let alone wait a couple of days. But he didn't.

I am criticizing his judgment, not his motive.

And we have the luxury of hindsight in saying it was the worst possible option. Had the congressional republicans behaved like adults we wouldn't even be having a conversation.

Nope. This has nothing to do with Congress or hindsight. He choose to not follow DOJ guidelines and not wait. If he did not know that his choice had the appearance of influencing the election (let alone possibly affecting the outcome of the election), then he is too stupid to be employed in any position of authority. If he could not figure out that following DOJ guidelines was the better option, then he is too stupid to be the head of the FBI.

Frankly, Comey got what he deserved, but not in the manner he deserved.

 

[SimpleDon]

Actually, I doubt that. This news was followed almost immediately by an actual Fake News story vetted by allies of Rudolph Giuliani about FBI charges being imminent against the Clinton Foundation. Add that followup to the case of where Comey announces the Clinton email investigation is reopening, that implies something significant was uncovered.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that Comey publicly announced that the investigation was reopened. I believe that he informed Congress that there was new information available, as he had promised to do if the investigation reopened, and it was republican members of congress who actually broadcast it publicly. My take-away at the time was that it was the members of congress who behaved horribly unethically, not Comey.

I'll be glad to be corrected if I'm wrong. I don't have time to research it right now.

I remember that Comey was faced with the very real prospect that the New York FBI office would leak the fact that many more emails had been found. Support for Trump was high in the FBI and there had been many leaks of information detrimental to Clinton, especially from the New York FBI office. This was more than a little unusual, leaks are normally rare from the FBI's investigations. It is a breakdown in their professionalism.

Therefore Comey was faced with only two choices, and both of them were bad. Sit on the information and to suffer when the almost inevitable leak from the New York field office exposed it and exposed Comey's failure to inform Congress as he had promised, or to inform Congress, with the certain knowledge that it would be leaked by Congress in a heartbeat. He decided to inform Congress as he had promised and to avoid the blow back and damage to the FBI's reputation that would accompany a leak of this size from the normally taciturn FBI.